https://x.com/HormuzReportee new posts
BREAKING: The US Navy has completely withdrawn its warships from the blockade line around Iran after Iran’s first operational use of the advanced Qasem Basir “carrier killer” anti-ship ballistic missile, with satellite imagery showing no US carriers or destroyers in the Gulf of Oman or Arabian Sea since early September, per open-source intelligence and Sentinel-2 data. The Qasem Basir has a declared range of roughly 1,200 kilometers — enough to cover nearly the entire Gulf of Oman and the US fleet’s previous positions — and is reportedly equipped with electro-optical and thermal imaging seekers designed to track naval targets. SNSC Secretary Mohsen Rezaei said the missile “created hell for the Americans,” while CENTCOM acknowledged US vessels came under attack by hostile missiles but said they were defeated without damage. Satellite imagery shows the USS George Washington, USS George H.W. Bush, USS Tripoli and Arleigh Burke-class destroyers are no longer visible in the designated blockade zone, with the line reportedly pushed beyond the missile’s range. The USS Gerald R. Ford has also left the Middle East after a ten-month deployment, leaving the US with two carriers in the region as CENTCOM prepares “short and strong” strike options against Iran. The blockade remains in place on paper, but the warships enforcing it have reportedly moved beyond the range of Iran’s anti-ship missiles.
·
https://twitter.com/aprajitanefes/status/2103463639189717007/video/1
BREAKING: Following the firing of at least 5 to 8 Iran’s Qasem Bassir “carrier killer” hypersonic missiles against the USS George Washington and one or more of its destroyer escorts three weeks ago, satellite images show that all US Navy ships were withdrawn to a distance of 750 miles from Iran beginning in early September. This is far beyond the carriers’ 600 mile F-35 combat radius and requires our warships to police several thousand more square miles of ocean meaning the blockade may no longer be effective. President Trump suspended all US military strikes on Iran on September 9th around the same time as this US naval withdrawal. He also decided to cancel US military strikes on the Houthis a week ago after Iran threatened to strike US Navy warships with its long range hypersonic missiles. Trump is now so obsessed with creating ‘the illusion of victory’ in a military campaign the US military has already decisively lost that he is considering the use of a non-strategic nuclear weapons against multiple Iranian nuclear sites. The humiliating defeat inflicted on the US by Iran, which is a second rate great power, has likely caused the US to lose conventional military deterence not just with Iran but with Russia and China as well in a stunning blow to US regional and global power just as I predicted would happen within days after the war began. A US military campaign to defend Taiwan would be far more difficult with Chinese naval and missile supremacy over the US in the South China Sea region and is no longer feasible given the US military has already exhausted up to 80 percent of its long range precision strike munitions in Trump’s unwinnable forever war in the Middle East. Trump has stated thst suspending US arms shipments to China is a baragaining chip which he has done since the Beijing Summit in exchange for China’s help to limit increases in gas prices stemming from his failed war with Iran. It is highly likely that Chinese President Xi Jinping will take advantage of America’s unprecendented military weaknesss by blockading or invading Taiwan by October 2027 should peaceful reunification talks continue to be unsuccessful. Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly believes the US military has been so weakened by the Iran War that Russia could seize thousands of miles of NATO territory in a 48-hour Russian Blitzkrieg offensive to split, and potentially collapse, NATO forcing it to suspend all military aid to Ukraine compelling it to sue for peace on Russian terms. It is extremely unlikely that Trump would respond to such a Russian ‘snatch and grab’ of NATO territory in the Baltics with direct military force given the fact that no US national secrurity interest would be threatened along with his desire to avoid a potential nuclear war with Russia while the US remains bogged down fighting Iran. This would compel NATO to accept a Russian cease-fire offer which left the Kremlin in control of large chunks of Estonian and Latvian territory. US military inaction would expose NATO’s Article Five security guarantee as a farce and pressure NATO front line states to accomodate Russia to ensure their security much as Finland did following its defeat in the Second World War.
730 kilometers, 39 tunnels, 201 bridges: Iran has just opened a “back door” to bypass the US Navy blockade. In September 2026, Iran officially announced the completion of track-laying for the entire Chabahar-Zahedan railway line. Spanning 630 kilometers (or 735 kilometers including branch lines), the railway traverses Sistan and Baluchestan the most desolate province in southeastern Iran and comprises 39 tunnels (totaling 17 kilometers), 201 bridges and culverts, and 33 stations. It has a designed annual capacity of 2.2 million passengers and 7.7 million tons of cargo. This is no ordinary railway. It represents Iran’s first strategic countermove forged in steel and concrete to assert its land-based power following the US Navy’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. I. Chabahar: Iran’s Only “Blockade-Proof” Gateway to the Sea Over 90% of Iran’s maritime trade relies on the Strait of Hormuz. The US has targeted 85% of Iranian oil tankers, sunk five of them in the area, and deployed Marines to the strait. Hormuz acts as a noose tightening around Iran’s throat. However, Chabahar is Iran’s only port on the Indian Ocean; located hundreds of kilometers east of the Strait of Hormuz, it faces the Arabian Sea directly. It lies outside the scope of the US Navy’s blockade. While the US Navy can establish a choke point at Hormuz, it cannot simultaneously blockade the entire Arabian Sea. The problem was that Chabahar was previously an “isolated port,” it lacked a connection to Iran’s national railway network. Once cargo was unloaded at Chabahar, it had to be transported by truck, resulting in low efficiency, high costs, and limited capacity. This 730-kilometer railway transforms Chabahar from an isolated port into a hub connected to Iran’s nationwide rail network. Cargo is unloaded at Chabahar and loaded onto trains; passing through Zahedan, it connects to Iran’s national railway network. From there, goods can be transported to Tehran, Mashhad, and Tabriz, and subsequently reach Central Asia, Russia, and Europe via the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC). II. Forty Years of Sanctions: A Railway Forged Under Pressure Every kilometer of this railway was carved out under the shadow of sanctions. The engineering challenge was immense. Sistan and Baluchestan is one of Iran’s poorest, most remote, and topographically complex provinces. The project involved 39 tunnels, 201 bridges, nearly 2,000 drainage structures, 70 million cubic meters of earthworks, and the pouring of 2.5 million cubic meters of concrete. The use of 90,000 tons of domestically produced steel rails saved $52 million in foreign currency. However, sanctions made everything more difficult. Foreign contractors withdrew, Western equipment could not be imported, and technology transfers were cut off. Iran had to rely solely on its own engineers and domestic materials. The Iranian armed forces were directly involved in construction, with an IRGC commander hailing it as a “national masterpiece.” The U.S. sanctions waiver for Chabahar Port is set to expire on April 26, 2026. This means any foreign company doing business with Chabahar faces the risk of being cut off from the U.S. dollar financial system. Yet, Iran built it anyway. III. All Eyes Are on This Railway 
India: The Only Route Bypassing Pakistan India has invested $120 million in equipment for Chabahar Port and proposed an additional $400 million to $500 million over the coming years to expand the port and support railway construction. India’s strategic logic is clear: Pakistan stands between India and Central Asia. Pakistan does not permit the transit of Indian goods, and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) excludes India. The Chabahar-Zahedan railway represents India’s only overland route to Central Asia and Afghanistan. However, the expiration of the U.S. waiver placed India in a dilemma. While India maintained its $120 million commitment, progress slowed significantly. Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi publicly urged India “not to abandon Chabahar,” describing it as India’s “Golden Gate.” 
Kazakhstan: A Gateway to Global Markets In June 2026, during a meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, Iran’s Minister of Roads and Urban Development, Sadegh, stated clearly: “Once the Chabahar-Zahedan railway connects to the national rail network, Kazakhstan’s capacity to access global markets will expand significantly.” Iran also offered land at Chabahar Port for Kazakh enterprises to establish logistics centers. For a landlocked nation like Kazakhstan, Chabahar represents the nearest Indian Ocean port not controlled by Russia or Pakistan. 
Afghanistan: A Lifeline Bypassing Pakistan By 2026, trade volume between Afghanistan and Iran had reached $3.6 billion. Between March 2025 and March 2026, over 640,000 tons of cargo were transported via the Khaf-Herat railway, a sharp increase from less than 15,000 tons during the same period previously. The completion of the Chabahar-Zahedan railway provides Afghanistan with a trade route that completely bypasses Pakistan. Afghan imports and exports can travel via the Iranian rail network to Chabahar, from where they can be shipped to India, the Gulf states, and Southeast Asia. IV. The Bigger Picture: From Maritime Blockade to Overland Breakthrough The Chabahar-Zahedan railway is not an isolated project; it is part of a systematic strategy through which Iran has been compelled to shift its focus from maritime power to land-based power. Iran is simultaneously advancing four overland corridors: 
East-West Railway Corridor: Spanning 10,400 km from China through Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan into Iran, it cuts transit time from 30 days by sea to 15 days by rail. International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC): Connecting Iran with Russia and India; the Chabahar-Zahedan railway is the critical missing link. Shalamcheh-Basra Railway: A mere 32-kilometer stretch that opens up a route linking Iran, Iraq, and Turkey to the Mediterranean. Iran-Pakistan Corridor: Connecting Pakistan and Central Asia via the Mirjaveh and Rimdan border crossings. These corridors share a single goal: enabling Iran to continue trading even under a U.S. Navy blockade. The U.S. blockaded a strait; Iran built a railway. #Iran #Chabahar #Zahedan #INSTC #India #CentralAsia #Sanctions #Resistance #Railway #Geopolitics
Leave a comment